1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the technology of computer applications, more specifically, to a computer for realizing low-power-consumption household appliance applications and a method thereof.
2. Description of Prior Art
Today the application of a computer in household appliances is mainly the media-type application, of which the most basic implementation is generally to perform playing, recording and editing of various media based on system software by using the hardware devices of a computer, such as a CD driver, a video adapter, a display, an audio adapter, a stereo, an earphone and the like.
In view of the demand for application in household appliances, a personal computer (PC) orientated to media application is commonly equipped with a display screen characterized by household-appliance features, for example, a small LCD screen or a vacuum flat display (VFD) which is common in household appliances. The basic architect of such a PC is shown in FIG. 1, which is the schematic structure diagram of a household-appliance-orientated PC of the prior art. The PC comprises a mainframe 100, a display 110, a keyboard and a mouse 120, a VFD display 130 and other peripheral devices 140 such as a printer and a scanner.
The VFD display 130 is connected to the mainboard of the mainframe 100 via a COM interface or a USB interface and controlled by the mainframe 100 to display some information about the application such as media playing, for example, chapters during DVD playing, time progress during playing, or fast-forward or fast-backward state. Some kinds of VFD displays 130 are provided with a infrared remote control receiver for receiving and interpreting a command transmitted from a remote controller and then sending the interpreted command to the mainframe 100, which controls a media playing device based on the command.
In the above media application, the overall system of software and hardware operates at full speed regardless what parts of the system are involved. This results in not only a considerable power consumption of the system but also a tremendous waste of system resources.
The conventional computer provides a method of performing the CD playing function by a function key in the power-off or hibernation state of the computer. Such simple CD playing is achieved by providing a simple execution program in the BIOS of the computer and utilizes primarily the disk-reading function of a CD driver itself. Such CD playing, however, cannot read multimedia data on the hard disk or other peripheral devices of the computer. Moreover, although this application doesn't activate the software system, the hardware system still runs at full speed and the system power consumption remains relatively high.